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Hurricane Isaac, Part 3 - Analysis and Forecasting Thread


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Issac definitely looks better structurally, it just hasn't seemed to put it all together yet. Issac might still have another 24+ hours over water, given the west trends in the modeling which makes sense given the weak weakness and the strong ridging, so a sigh of relief cannot be had just yet.

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Perhaps they're holding off until they see wind data from the buoys and oil rigs sustain hurricane strength. None of them, from the quick glance I've made as I've been in meetings most of the morning, are showing sustained 65 kt winds... That and perhaps they're waiting to see more than one or two dropsondes come back with winds greater than 65 kts... These are all just theories as to why they haven't upgraded Isaac. However, I may have missed a few obs from my cursory glance at recent data...

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Interesting insights.

Even as I have good confidence in the technical explanation offered by the NHC for the lack of an upgrade, I suspect that it might be better to err on the side of calling storms near hurricane strength (~70 mph maximum sustained winds with at least some evidence of stronger winds via reconnaissance) a hurricane. That would give added emphasis to the public safety message. The precise measurements related to the storm could be left to the end-of-season report. I don't think much would be lost given that such an approach would yield only modest revisions, but it might bolster public responsiveness to the approaching storm. If so, the trade-off would probably be worth it.

Anyway, that's just my thought.

Agree 100%
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Isaac's infrared signature continues to improve with convection deepening near the center. The whole convective pattern is rotating as well so the northern semicircle is becoming more convectively active by the hour. We'll see if it continues but based on Isaac's past I pretty much expect the convective asymmetry to keep propagating cyclonically.

http://www.ssec.wisc.../loop_srso.html

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Perhaps they're holding off until they see wind data from the buoys and oil rigs sustain hurricane strength. None of them, from the quick glance I've made as I've been in meetings most of the morning, are showing sustained 65 kt winds... That and perhaps they're waiting to see more than one or two dropsondes come back with winds greater than 65 kts... These are all just theories as to why they haven't upgraded Isaac. However, I may have missed a few obs from my cursory glance at recent data...

The whole point of "maximum sustained winds" is just that... It doesn't matter if some spotty surface observations don't report hurricane force winds, as long as there is one area that does. I am wondering why the dropsonde data was not mentioned in the discussion.

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As a heavy consumer of products disseminated by our government's weather services, I prefer the scientifically precise approach. I would not appreciate any suspicion the Weather Service is playing me "for effect." I would not like the burden of having to filter for that consideration on my own. Neither would the public, which would in some measure begin to tune out if it came to suspect spin for effect.

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Interesting that the H*WIND surface-wind analysis clearly shows a hurricane, with a large area of 65-kt winds. They're usually lower than operational/best-track.

H*WIND uses both Dropsonde and Flight level winds, along with a handfull of other data. I use to quality control some of the data back when QUIKSCAT was active. I agree that it usually has a low bias, so this suggests that we have a hurricane.

12z GFS continues with the painfully slow west wobbling prior to landfall...epic rains.

The 12z GFS has come in line with the HRRR showing a track just offshore up until 12z tomorrow. In fact the entire center doesn't push fully onshore until tomorrow evening.

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This has got to be a hurricane now, recon is finding hundreds of miles of hurricane force winds at flight level, with peak flight level winds up to 100 mph. SFMR isn't finding much hurricane force sfc winds but under convection there must be.

Isaac now centered 80 miles from the tip of the delta and 165 miles from downtown New Orleans. Winds gusting over tropical storm force across eastern LA with winds sustained near 35 mph. 1.6 ft of surge on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, 3.4 ft of surge at Shell Beach, and 2.3 ft of surge at the tip of the delta (where winds are gusting over 60 mph).

It's been 1.5 hours since this post, now 3.7 ft of surge at Shell Beach, 2.4 ft at the tip of the delta, and 1.7 ft on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans. Shell Beach is rising the quickest since it's where all the water is being funneled into.

We've passed high tide in the open Gulf and it's about high tide in the coastal marshes, New Orleans high tide isn't for another 6 hours but the tidal amplitude is small anyways, so the tide that really matters is the tide in the coastal marshes/gulf. Low tide in the open gulf is going to be at 6 pm with the next high tide at 8 am... pretty bad timing for Louisiana.

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Looks like FL winds up to 94 KT now...

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AF306 3109A ISAAC HDOB 38 20120828

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